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The water company Severn Trent was warned today that it faced having to lower

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The water company Severn Trent was warned today that it faced having to lower bills as punishment for failures which added £42 million to customer charges. As well as returning the money to customers - equivalent to between £2 and £3 a year on the average bill by 2009-10 - watchdog Ofwat said the interim findings of its inquiry were "sufficiently serious" to merit a further reduction in price limits. Ofwat also said it had taken the "unprecedented step" of alerting the Serious Fraud Office to certain issues after it found Severn Trent Water provided it with data that was either "deliberately miscalculated or poorly supported". Severn Trent, which has around eight million customers, admitted there had been weaknesses in internal processes and systems between 2000 and 2004. Philip Fletcher, Ofwat's director-general of water services, said: "Customer have the right to expect companies to maintain the higher governance standards, including effective processes and controls, at all times. Severn Trent Water's approach fell significantly below these standards.".

NBC Universal, the owner of Universal Studios, has become the latest media group to make a big-money acquisition of an internet content company, paying $600m (£340m) for iVillage, a women's website. The deal gives NBC access to an online audience of 14.2 million visitors a month and allows it to tailor online content that dovetails with lifestyle programmes on its television channels. The acquisition values iVillage at more than 60 times last year's net income, but Bob Wright, the chairman of NBC Universal, defended the price. Revenues at iVillage have been growing at 30 per cent a year and that rate is sustainable, he said. "We clearly think we can maintain that, and that is why the pricing is high. They have limited tools to market themselves, and limited resources until now, and we can help there."Since its creation in 1995, iVillage has established a "large and passionate online community" and every part of NBC would supply content for the site, Mr Wright promised.NBC's parent company, General Electric, even held out the hope that other branches of the giant conglomerate could benefit. GE Healthcare, which makes medical scanners and tests for disease, could help develop "a customised consumer healthcare experience" for iVillage's health and beauty pages, it said.IVillage was founded by Candice Carpenter, an executive at the QVC shopping channel, with backing from investors including AOL..

More than 70,000 members of Lambeth Building Society are each set to receive a cash windfall of at least £400 if they back a takeover offer from Portman Building Society. Portman announced yesterday it had reached agreement with Lambeth's board to take over the savings and mortgage provider, which is the country's 20th-largest building society and has nine branches in the south of England. Portman, which will remain the UK's third-largest society behind Nationwide and Britannia after the deal, expects to make a formal offer to Lambeth members eligible to vote on the takeover before the end of next month.Robert Sharpe, the chief executive of Portman, said he expected Lambeth savers to receive windfalls that would vary in size according to their account balances. Mortgage borrowers are likely to be offered a flat-rate windfall, though many will benefit from the fact Portman offers marginally cheaper interest rates on comparable products.To be eligible for the windfalls, which Portman has promised will be worth at least £400, savers and borrowers must have held a Lambeth mortgage or savings account on 31 January. In addition, savers' account balances must have been in excess of £100 on that date.

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